In this article over at The Atlantic, Maura Kelly explores the reason
why we've become a nation of worrywarts: you can blame our (broken) system
of meritocracy!

The meritocratic pressure-cooker

The idea that we can accomplish anything we put our minds to is
so pervasive that we often have a lot on our minds. We feel pressure
to take on more responsibilities and to make the "right" choices
-- and we beat ourselves up when we fail, as Princeton professor Anne-Marie
Slaughter, the former director of policy planning for the State Department,
wrote
in this month's Atlantic cover story. "Millions of women feel
that they are to blame if they cannot manage to rise up the ladder as
fast as men and also have a family and an active home life (and be thin
and beautiful to boot)," she wrote. And unsurprisingly, perhaps,
women suffer from a number of anxiety disorders -- including generalized
anxiety and panic attacks -- at a rate twice as high as that for men.

But men feel the heat, too. As McNamee puts it: "A reasonable
argument could be made that the race to get ahead in America is particularly
stressful. If Americans believe that individuals 'get what they deserve'
based on their merit (innate abilities, having the right attitude, working
hard, playing by the rules), then distain for the unsuccessful is seen
as warranted." Comedian D.L. Hughley makes a similar point in his
forthcoming book, I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up: How The Audacity of
Dopes is Ruining America: "There's this American idea that we're
a meritocracy, that people reach the top through the virtue of hard
work and perseverance. But the flipside to that thinking is that the
poor ... must be flawed, lazy, stupid, or whatever other terrible adjective
you would like to use. They didn't work hard enough in some kind of
way but had every opportunity."

It's supposed to be a meritocracy, but it is broken. Those who are born on third base congratulate themselves on hitting a home run. Those born on the bottom face higher barriers every generation. More here: